It notes Juarez’s top priorities locally – “Three major capital projects for District 5: the North Precinct Police Station, the Northgate bike and pedestrian bridge and securing funding for a second light rail stop on Northeast 130th Street.”

It’s a bit of a slog (which is why it took two days to read – the “so-called hyporheic zone” is in the third sentence) but interesting. The gist is that Seattle Public Utilities is testing treating Thornton Creek like the Cedar River.

Our drinking water comes in part from the Cedar drainage, whereas Thornton for decades has resembled more of a storm water/sewer drain.

One of the test areas is in Maple Leaf, the renamed Kingfisher Natural Area.

And besides, it gives us the opportunity to highlight this video the Thornton Creek Alliance posted to our Facebook page last week. It’s of a coyote yipping in the Kingfisher Natural Area.

October 26th, 2015 by Mike

Laure emails over the weekend:

“Pretty cool thing happening in our neighborhood: This is the second time in a week that we’ve seen a coyote in our backyard!

“The first time was last Friday at sunrise (around 7 a.m.), just passing through our yard. The second time was today while eating lunch. It was at first hiding behind the trees so we went in the back to see if it was the coyote or just the neighbor dog, and we saw it running away in the bushes just behind our house (running towards the forest west of the Sacajawea grass area). We live just next to Sacajawea school, on 17th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 96th St.

“Bring your pets inside at night, our neighbor just lost his cat and suspects now it was the coyote. The coyote looks well fed and in good health (although I’m not a vet…).

Previous coyote sightings here were in September, April and January, all of this year. That’s the January coyote in the photo.

Tammie emails this morning: “I’m pretty sure I saw a coyote cross in front of my car as I was leaving for work this morning.

“It had a black animal in its mouth that it dropped when it saw me. Probably a rat but maybe a cat.

“This was on Northeast 90th Street and 20th Avenue Northeast. Please warn neighbors with outdoor cats and chickens to be careful.”

A previous coyote sighting in late January by Gregg (that’s his photo above) drew 21 comments, including a knowledgeable one from Erin that began:

Hello! I’m adjacent to Maple Leaf at Burke Ave. N. up against Washelli cemetery. Coyotes have lived peacefully for decades in the cemetery; occasionally we hear them singing or see one, but they are shy, avoid people, and eat wild food.

The coyote pictured is part of a new pack that just came into the area. They are not like the cemetery coyotes. They are large in size, bold, unafraid of people, are out in the middle of the day in high density areas as well as night, and hunt pets. They seem to be ranging as far south as Greenlake and as far north as 155th.

January 20th, 2015 by Mike

Greg emails under the subject line: “Coyote spotted in Maple Leaf”:

Not sure if someone else sent this tip in, but we saw this guy last Thursday on the corner of Eighth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 94th street at 8:20am. He looked pretty happy and comfortable…not sure if he is a regular.

Given that Thornton Creek cuts though Maple Leaf, this seems possible.